


A Dinosaur On Wheels

by Star_less



Series: the 'snips, snails, puppy-dog tails' verse [8]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bribery, Cookies, Desperation, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Infantilism, IronDad & SpideySon, Irondad, Kid Peter Parker, Legos, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Peter plays with Lego, Playtime, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Potty Dancing, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark Friendship, Steve Rogers Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Team as Family, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark plays with Lego, Toys, because Peter forces him to, spideyson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 05:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19784125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_less/pseuds/Star_less
Summary: “Dragons breathe fire anyway. That’s not very impressive. Besides, I’ve never seen a dinosaur on wheels before.”Armed with his new toys, Peter cajoles Tony into playing with the Lego before dinner on a boring, mission less, day. It gets competitive. Steve bribes Peter, for other reasons.





	A Dinosaur On Wheels

**Author's Note:**

> Read tags. I write Peter younger than he actually is in canon hence infantilism tag. :) and enjoy if you like this sort of thing... if you don't, that's okay too!

“Mr. Stark? I’m bored,” Peter murmured quietly, rocking on his heels as he watched the man pace the kitchen preparing tonight’s dinner. “I- I don’t know what to do…”   
Another day had raced upon them without any update of a mission or anything for Peter to do and so he was beginning to feel a little antsy. He had already had a morning of web-shooting in the backyard and been allowed a whole hour of Spider-Man patrolling just before lunch, but now the day was beginning to draw in and Peter was feeling a little… well, flat. 

“If you want, you can wash the dishes afterwards.” Tony offered absentmindedly, although he didn’t expect Peter to jump at the chance to do so and wasn’t entirely sure he could trust him to do so at the moment. 

Sure enough, Peter whined. His nose wrinkled unhappily. 

“Hey, kiddo,” Steve murmured conversationally from the living room, where he was sat watching television mostly in an attempt to entice Peter away from the kitchen as he knew Stark wouldn’t react kindly if Peter was whining and getting under his feet. “I heard you went to the store with Mr. Stark. What did you get?” 

Peter twisted on his feet to turn his attention toward Steve, a slow cheerful smile spreading over his face. “Some Lego, some Play-Doh, a colouring book, a polar bear stuffie and some action figures,” he listed shyly, hoping Steve didn’t burst into laughter at how babyish he was being, because Mr. Stark had promised that it was okay. “I haven’t played with it all just yet.” He whispered. He had acted out his own mission with his Avengers action figures and had taken Snowy right to bed that night but the Lego and the Play-Doh were still in their boxes. Mr Stark had been quite stern and said, “You only play with the Play-Doh at the kitchen table”, as if he was a toddler who smooshed Play-Doh all over the place or stuck it up his nose—or something. Mr. Stark had insisted that Peter was wrong, that he didn’t view Peter as a little kid in the slightest, but that he didn’t want the clean areas of the Tower to be mucked up by Play-Doh… but Peter was a clever boy, cleverer than Mr. Stark especially when it came to smooshy-Play Doh and he of course knew differently. He hadn’t quite had the chance to play with the Lego yet, but suddenly really wanted to. Mr. Stark had got him not one, not two but three large Lego sets – the Ghostbusters’ Ecto 1, the Millennium Falcon, and the NASA Space Station – and a smaller Lego set so Peter could build whatever he pleased. But Peter was waiting for the right moment, because he really quite wanted Mr. Stark to settle down and build some Lego with him. He didn’t mind what it was, whether it was a big flashy Lego set or whether they built whatever they wanted-- just that he wanted to spend some time with Mr. Stark quietly building together.

“That sounds awesome, kid.” Steve smiled in agreement. “Well, why don’t you play with some of that now? The Lego, maybe? If you want someone to play with, I’ll play with you until dinnertime!” He offered.

Peter hesitated, biting his lip and beginning to sub-consciously rock on his heels. As much as he wanted somebody to play with, and as much as playing Lego with Steve sounded like fun, he wanted to play with Mr. Stark even more. But maybe if he said no, Steve would be upset with him...?   
“I- I don’t know…” he began nervously, not quite knowing what to say as he looked between Steve and Tony who was still cooking unaware a little way away. 

Steve nodded in understanding, although was much more observant than Peter gave him credit for and saw easily how Peter hesitated and eyed Tony. Of course the kid would want to spend some time with Tony, he idolised him... hell, if you didn’t get too technical about it then Tony was the closest thing Peter had to a father at the moment, and what child didn’t want to play with their father after a day being spoilt at the toy store?   
Letting the subject drop for now and offering Peter the clicker and thus full control of the television (even if, yes, he had to suffer an hour of children’s cartoons!) Steve rose from the sofa and drifted into the kitchen. 

“Dinner isn’t ready yet, Peter,” Tony murmured patiently without looking up from the marinara sauce he was stirring on the stovetop. He had felt some sort of presence drift close to his back, the sort of presence that usually told him a bored or whining child was snapping at his feet. “Go inside and watch TV or read until it’s ready, and I’ll come get you.”

“I’m not Peter,” Steve chuckled and in one fluid motion took the ladle from Tony’s hand and swapped places with him. 

For a long moment the neurons seemed not to charge up in his brain and Tony quite wondered why Peter sounded so gruff and deep and whether he should ask JARVIS if Peter had been hit by a bowling ball of puberty before finally it clicked. “I said I’d cook dinner tonight,” Tony frowned, reaching ineffectively for the ladle that Steve was now holding out of his reach and finding that to his great dismay he couldn’t reach for it even when he stood up on his tiptoes. “Steve, c’mon, stop playing around,” he grunted, pressing up against the supersoldier in his attempt to grab the ladle. What the hell was Steve playing at? All of the Avengers had their turn on the cooking rota—the cooking rota Steve had insisted on, for Christ’s sake--and tonight it was Tony’s turn. “You don’t cook until Thursday, or did you choose to forget that?” he snapped. When Steve had insisted on the rota and Tony had refused it was all, ‘be fair, Tony’ and ‘everybody has to do their share’ but now Steve got to decide when to butt in? 

“Tony, shush,” Steve sighed good-naturedly and rolled his eyes, lowering the ladle to Tony’s hands once more to appease him if nothing else. “Peter wants you to spend some time with him. Lego, I think. Forget about cooking tonight, I’ll take over… just go play with the kid.” He chuckled lightly.  
“It’s either that or Lego Ninjago re-runs on Cartoon Network.”  
~

“Hey, kiddo…” Tony smiled slightly and tried to force away the awkward little forcefield that had built up around him. He couldn’t help it, it was just… the thought that Peter wanted to spend time with him…? To spend time with him playing games nevertheless, seemed so alien. Tony was a grown man, he didn’t know how to play with a child; even if that child really was a big bigger than usual. “Thought I’d take a break. Cooking’s boring. What are you up to?”

Peter was sat on his knees in front of the television, his brown eyes bright but glazed over. Mr Stark’s voice drifted to his ears but was far away at the same time – he managed to nod lightly at the screen as he watched the Lego figurines jump and karate kick their way across the television screen - totally and utterly absorbed in the Lego world rather than the real one. “It’s finished,” he mumbled with a tiny hint of upset, the credits beginning to roll. 

“Never mind,” Tony shrugged although he really was rather glad he’d saved himself from a Lego Ninjago marathon after all. “Why don’t we play with the real Lego instead until dinner is ready?”

Peter’s head snapped up toward Tony in an instant, as if he wasn’t quite sure he had heard correctly. “You… you wanna play Lego with me…?” he asked in breathless disbelief, mouth opening to a shocked little ‘o’.   
Tony nodded. Peter jumped up at once, television forgotten, and smiled nervously. “W- well, what Lego? Star Wars, NASA or Ghostbusters? Or- or would you like to build by yourself?” The big Lego sets were the ones that Peter needed the help with most of all, because they were so big and fiddly and he always read the instructions wrong or lost pieces if he tried to build them by himself—but maybe Mr. Stark didn’t want to build any of those, and frankly Peter was happy to do whatever Mr. Stark wanted if it meant they could play together. 

“You decide, kiddo,” Tony smiled encouragingly and waved his hand, chuckling to himself in amusement as the boy darted up the stairs two at a time. “Be careful!”  
~

“I didn’t know which one you wanted to play with so I got this one, is that okay?” Peter chirruped as he dragged the large Lego barrel into the common room and promptly upended it sending a rainbow of small Lego bricks across the hardwood floor. “This way we can build what we want to.”  
He sat himself down on the floor, cross legged, and looked up at his mentor with a brightness in his eyes; a brightness of total happiness and complete expectation. Well, get down here, then? He said without saying anything at all.

Tony watched him in total amusement and sighed. “Kiddo, do you know how old I am?” 

But, down he plopped onto the floor.

After half an hour had passed Tony began to realise why Peter found Lego so immersive. The two had sat together in a happy peace, clicking their creations together piece by piece and occasionally asking for ‘that red one’ or ‘that blue square’. It wasn’t the kind of playtime Tony dreaded, with Peter bouncing all over him and directing him to, ‘do this’, ‘do that’ – it was a playtime that, really, Tony was already used to – building. And building was a hobby that Tony had never really grown out of. “Oh kiddo, I’d be super scared if I was you…” Tony teased in a distracted murmur as he snapped a plastic orange flame to the top of his creature. “My monster is going to crisp your monster up to pieces.”

“Nuh uh,” Peter murmured, squirming forward to grab a set of wheels and clicking them to the bottom. “Mine’s going to eat you for dinner.”   
After he’d said it, he wasn’t sure why. In fact, he felt a little bit embarrassed because it made him sound babyish. But Mr. Stark had started it and Mr. Stark didn’t seem to mind that he was being silly, because Mr. Stark was being silly too. It kinda made Peter feel safe, the sort of safe when he was six years old and tiny and could run around pretending to be a superhero without worrying about who got hurt and who didn’t.

“Uh…” Tony pretended to think about it. “…nuh uh, he’s not!”

“Ya huh he is.”

“Nuh uh!”

Peter looked indignant by this point. He shifted on his bottom a little more and spied Steve in the kitchen. “We need a judge!” he declared, gesturing to the kitchen. “Steve can be the judge. Steve will decide who is the winner.” 

“What prize does the winner get?” Tony asked. Now that he was pulled away from his Lego building Peter’s wriggling and fidgeting became all the more obvious and he quirked a brow in surprise, wondering if Peter had clicked on to what was obviously the beginnings of a pressing need or not. 

“Uhhh… cookies?” Peter offered with a wibbly grin. As Mr. Stark pulled him out of his Lego world Peter was beginning to feel as if he needed to do a pee. But… well, going for a pee seemed to take so long, and Peter would rather be building than peeing, so… so he was suuure he could wait a handful of minutes longer. Besides, he wasn’t a toddler, he could hold it in perfectly fine thank you very much. “Two cookies…? After dinner, of course…?”  
He jumped to his feet, fidgeting slightly and stepping on his toes—but before Tony could open his mouth and march him off to the bathroom, Peter had darted into the kitchen. “…Alright, sure.” Tony relented with a sigh.   
Watching as Peter’s bum wriggled out of sight Tony closed his eyes and could only hope Steve clicked a lot quicker than Tony himself did. 

“Mr. Steve!” Peter chirped, running into the kitchen and bouncing slightly on his feet. “Me ‘n’ Mr. Stark need a judge for our Lego. Mr. Stark says his is better.” Looking around he hesitated and lowered his voice to a not-quite whisper. “Even if it is, you should say mine is the best because then I get cookies.”

Steve chuckled, turning on the spot from where he was watching the spaghetti cook. He took in… Peter… for a moment; or specifically Peter’s stance – stepping all over his toes in a dance that Steve knew all too well. “Sure I’ll be the judge, but… d’you need to do a little something else first…?” he urged. 

Peter frowned and shook his head. “Come on, Steve!” he pleaded, tugging Steve’s arm.

Steve sighed with a laugh and let Peter tug him toward the living room. He’d tried, at least, and short of lifting him up and rushing him toward the closest toilet Steve wasn’t quite sure what else he could do. Plus, he wasn’t exactly sure Peter would agree to that sort of manhandling anyway, even if he was about to explode. “Okay, fine, fine. Show me your entries.”

Peter crumpled to his knees on the floor and held up his brightly coloured Lego creation with a grin. “It’s a dinosaur on wheels.” He explained, squirming a little again. “It can fly and run really fast.”

Steve nodded seriously in consideration, although he was quick to catch the squirming and wished he could’ve said something. “Okay.. Tony?”

“It’s a dragon.” Tony said simply, holding the blue creation up. “It breathes fire.”  
(As he held it up, as if it knew, the tail promptly wobbled and fell off. Peter snickered behind him.)

“Who wins?” Peter asked earnestly, rocking back and forth in anticipation as he looked at Steve.   
Tony found himself copying Peter’s earnest look. “Yes, Steve. Who wins?”

“Oh, easy.” Steve said. “Peter.”

“What?! Why!” Tony gasped in faux upset as Peter collapsed into cheerful giggles next to him and jeered, ‘I get two cookies!’. Course, he had entirely expected this answer, and supposed Peter had been through enough lately to be deserving of two cookies after dinner tonight.

Steve squinted, chuckling. “Dragons breathe fire anyway. That’s not very impressive. Its tail fell off, too.”   
He gestured to Peter’s dinosaur. “Besides, I’ve never seen a dinosaur on wheels before.” 

Standing, he dipped into the kitchen to grab the cookie jar for Peter’s prize. “So after dinner, Peter can have two cookies.” He held the jar out toward the waiting child, whose hands were already starfished in expectation. But just as Peter was about to reach into the jar, Steve tugged back. “Okay, so you can have two cookies but you need to do something for me first.” He requested smoothly. 

Peter whined. Distraction fading, his legs were tightening in again and he was beginning to shift around urgently. “W- what?” he stuttered. That wasn’t part of the deal!

“Go to the bathroom, kiddo.” Steve chuckled. He was beginning to get fed up of seeing the kid squirm all over and the antsy feeling that prickled in his stomach as a result because he didn’t quite feel like loading up some more laundry or having to comfort an upset child once more—he had done enough of that lately. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy your cookies much better if you don’t have to squirm all over the place.”

Peter whimpered a little to himself, the small voice deep in the back of his brain telling him that Steve was playing dirty. At the same time Peter didn’t argue because… well, Steve wasn’t wrong. He really did have to pee and besides, it looked as if their game was over so it wasn’t as if he was missing anything fun!   
Nodding timidly, he jumped up and squirmed off in the direction of the bathroom.

“…Wow.” Tony commented, watching Peter rush off. “Well done. Seriously, well done. I couldn’t get a word in.” If he had managed, Tony was sure that Peter wouldn’t quite listen to him anyway – but that was by the by and Steve didn’t need to know that.

“That’s bribery for you, Tony.” Steve shrugged, heading off to plate up dinner. “Speaking of,” he took in the pots and pans spattered with marinara sauce, the ladle and that was without counting the state of the plates after dinner… “--how many cookies will it take for you to clean up the kitchen and wash the dishes afterwards?” he grinned ruefully to himself as Tony scoffed. There was a moment of silence. 

“At least three.” Tony said at last, rolling words around his mouth. “And you have to look after kiddo next week so I can have a date night with Pepper.”

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> I lowkey really like this one even though it wasn't meant to go with this fic (Most of the chapters I've uploaded so far were written last year and I've only just began uploading them lol) - whereas I wrote this in like... a day. Today. This morning. Peter also acts pretty little in this one so it's made me think... whether I should explore that some more because, spoiler alert, I haven't really done that thus far. And it was SO hard for me to have to write Peter without saying he sucked his thumb or something. Soooo looks like this fic is getting a bit longer........ eventually!!


End file.
